--- title: Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs. — Kaffir folk-lore · full text with trees description: Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs., «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: In South Africa the word Kaffir is often used in a general way to signify any black native who is not the descendant of an imp --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/2/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Kaffir folk-lore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/) / Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaf… # Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs. Introductory Chapter Regarding the Kaffirs. of «Kaffir folk-lore» by George McCall Theal: the whole text, 231 sentences and 5272 words. The small number after every sentence leads to its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/2/page/2/) [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/2/page/3/) In South Africa the word Kaffir is often used in a general way to signify any black native who is not the descendant of an imported slave, but on the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony the term is usually restricted to a member of the Amaxosa tribe.[1](1/ "tree and pragmatics") It is from individuals of this tribe that the following stories have been collected.[2](2/ "tree and pragmatics") Europeans have designated these people Kaffirs ever since the discovery of the country, though they themselves cannot even pronounce the word, as the English sound of the letter r is wanting in their language.[3](3/ "tree and pragmatics") R in Kaffir words, as now written, represents the same guttural sound as g does in Dutch, or the Scotch sound of ch in loch; thus Rarabe is pronounced Khah-khah-bay.[4](4/ "tree and pragmatics") They have no word by which to signify the whole race, but each tribe has its own title, which is usually the name of its first great chief, with the plural prefix Ama or Aba.[5](5/ "tree and pragmatics") A very large portion of South Africa is occupied by people of this race.[6](6/ "tree and pragmatics") All along the eastern coast, as far south as the Great Fish River, the country is thickly populated with Kaffir tribes.[7](7/ "tree and pragmatics") On the other side of the mountains, the Bechuanas, their near kindred, are found stretching almost across to the Atlantic shore, from the heart of the continent southward to the Orange River.[8](8/ "tree and pragmatics") The country lying between the present colonies of the Cape and Natal was first explored by Europeans in the year 1688, and was then found to be occupied by four great tribes,—the Amampondomsi, the Amampondo, the Abatembu, and the Amaxosa,—who formed nations as distinct from each other as are the French and the Italians.[9](9/ "tree and pragmatics") Their language was the same, and their laws and customs varied very slightly; but in all that respected government they were absolutely independent of one another.[10](10/ "tree and pragmatics") It has since been ascertained that the tribes further northward do not differ materially from these.[11](11/ "tree and pragmatics") The Amaxosa were the farthest to the southward in 1688, as they have been ever since.[12](12/ "tree and pragmatics") On the coast they had then reached the Keiskama River, and there is good reason to believe that inland their outposts extended westward as far as the site of the present village of Somerset East.[13](13/ "tree and pragmatics") They were thus in contact with Hottentot tribes along an extended line, and an amalgamation of the two races had probably already commenced.[14](14/ "tree and pragmatics") It is certain that during the latter half of the last century a great many Hottentots were incorporated with the Amaxosa.[15](15/ "tree and pragmatics") The mode of incorporation was in most instances a selection of Hottentot females after the destruction of their clan in war; but in at least one case a Hottentot tribe became gradually a Kaffir clan by mixture of blood through adoption of Kaffir refugees.[16](16/ "tree and pragmatics") The people of this tribe, a pure Hottentot one in 1689 and then called the Gqunaqua, were found by a traveller a century later to resemble Kaffirs more than Hottentots in appearance, and, except a few families, they are now undistinguishable from other members of the Amaxosa.[17](17/ "tree and pragmatics") Their original language has been lost, but their old tribal title is yet retained in the Kaffir form Amagqunukwebe.[18](18/ "tree and pragmatics") This large admixture of Hottentot blood has not affected the mode of government or the general customs of the Amaxosa, as is seen on comparing them with other tribes to the north; but it has affected their personal appearance and their language.[19](19/ "tree and pragmatics") Many words in use by the women, though appearing in a Kaffir form, can be traced to Hottentot roots.[20](20/ "tree and pragmatics") Owing to this, their traditional stories may have been modified to some, though not to any great, extent[21](21/ "tree and pragmatics") In a condition independent of European control, each Kaffir tribe is presided over by a great chief, whose government is, however, but little felt beyond his own immediate clan, each petty division being under a ruler who is in reality nearly independent.[22](22/ "tree and pragmatics") The person of a chief is inviolable, and an indignity offered to one of them is considered a crime of the gravest nature.[23](23/ "tree and pragmatics") Such offshoots of the ruling house as are not of themselves chiefs are of aristocratic rank, and are exempt from obedience to the laws which govern the commonalty.[24](24/ "tree and pragmatics") With regard to the common people, the principle of the law is that they are the property of the rulers, and consequently an offence against any of their persons is atoned for by a fine to the chief.[25](25/ "tree and pragmatics") Murder and assaults are punished in this manner.[26](26/ "tree and pragmatics") Thus in theory the government is despotic, but in practice it has many checks.[27](27/ "tree and pragmatics") The first is the existence of a body of councillors about the person of each chief, whose advice he is compelled to listen to.[28](28/ "tree and pragmatics") A second is the custom that a man who can escape from a chief whose enmity he has incurred will be protected by any other with whom he takes refuge, so that an arbitrary or unpopular ruler is in constant danger of losing his followers.[29](29/ "tree and pragmatics") The chief in council makes the law and administers it, but from the courts of the petty chiefs there is an appeal to the head of the tribe.[30](30/ "tree and pragmatics") Only two kinds of punishment are known: fines and death.[31](31/ "tree and pragmatics") Lawsuits are of frequent occurrence, and many Kaffirs display great ability and remarkable powers of oratory in conducting them.[32](32/ "tree and pragmatics") The judges are guided in their proceedings by a recognised common law and by precedents, though some of them are exceedingly venal.[33](33/ "tree and pragmatics") They will sit, however, with exemplary patience, for days together, to hear all the details of a case, and, where bribery is impossible, their sentences are usually in accordance with strict justice.[34](34/ "tree and pragmatics") The manner in which the Kaffirs became divided into independent tribes in ancient times is clearly shown by the law of succession to the chieftainship which is in force to the present day.[35](35/ "tree and pragmatics") The first wives of a chief are usually the daughters of some of his father’s principal retainers; but as he increases in power his alliance is courted by great families, and thus it generally happens that the last of his wives is the highest in rank.[36](36/ "tree and pragmatics") Probably she is the daughter of a neighbouring chief, for it is indispensable in her case that the blood of the ruling line should flow in her veins.[37](37/ "tree and pragmatics") She is termed the great wife, and her eldest son is the principal heir.[38](38/ "tree and pragmatics") Another of his wives is invested at some period of his life, with the consent of his councillors and friends, with the title of wife of the right hand, and to her eldest son is allotted a portion of the tribe, with which he forms a new clan.[39](39/ "tree and pragmatics") The government of this is entrusted to him as soon as he is full grown, so that while his brother is still a child he has opportunities of increasing his power.[40](40/ "tree and pragmatics") If he is the abler ruler of the two, war between them follows almost to a certainty as soon as the great heir reaches manhood, and is invested with a separate command.[41](41/ "tree and pragmatics") Should peace be maintained, upon the death of his father the son of the right hand acknowledges his brother as superior in rank, but pays him no tribute, nor admits of his right to interfere in any manner with the internal government of the new clan.[42](42/ "tree and pragmatics") Thus there was always a tendency to division and subdivision of the tribes, which was the great fault of the system.[43](43/ "tree and pragmatics") But while it operated against unity, it tended towards a rapid expansion of the people in a country where only a slight opposition could be made by the earlier inhabitants.[44](44/ "tree and pragmatics") The less powerful chief of the two would naturally desire to reside at a considerable distance from his competitor, and thus a new tract of country would be taken possession of.[45](45/ "tree and pragmatics") About six generations ago a practice was introduced of dividing each tribe into three sections, by the elevation of a third son to power, with the title of representative of the ancients.[46](46/ "tree and pragmatics") But it was not generally adopted until Gaika, about the beginning of the present century, gave it his countenance, since which time this custom has been almost universally followed by the Amaxosa, so that the number of petty chiefs and little clans is now very great.[47](47/ "tree and pragmatics") The Kaffir of the coast region is a model of a well-formed man.[48](48/ "tree and pragmatics") In general he is large, without being corpulent, strong, muscular, erect in bearing, and with all his limbs in perfect symmetry.[49](49/ "tree and pragmatics") His skull is shaped like that of a European; but here the resemblance ends, for his colour is a deep brown, and his hair is short and woolly.[50](50/ "tree and pragmatics") His intellectual abilities are of no mean order, and his reasoning powers are quite equal to those of a white man.[51](51/ "tree and pragmatics") He is haughty in demeanour, and possesses a large amount of vanity.[52](52/ "tree and pragmatics") For anything approaching frivolity he has a supreme contempt.[53](53/ "tree and pragmatics") The men are handsomer than the women, which is owing to the difference in their mode of living.[54](54/ "tree and pragmatics") Their language is rich in words, and is musical in expression, owing to the great number of vowels used.[55](55/ "tree and pragmatics") With very few exceptions the syllables end in vowels.[56](56/ "tree and pragmatics") In structure it differs greatly from the languages of Europeans.[57](57/ "tree and pragmatics") The inflections take place at the beginning, not at the end of words.[58](58/ "tree and pragmatics") Thus the plural of indoda, a man, is amadoda, men; of umfazi, a woman, is abafazi, women; of isikali, a weapon, is izikali, weapons.[59](59/ "tree and pragmatics") And so with every part of speech which is capable of being inflected.[60](60/ "tree and pragmatics") This difference is, however, a slight one, when compared with the changes which the other parts of speech undergo to make them harmonize in sound with the principal noun in the sentence.[61](61/ "tree and pragmatics") According as the noun commences with a particular syllable, so the first syllable of the adjective, the verb, the adverb, and even the preposition, must be altered to agree with it in sound.[62](62/ "tree and pragmatics") Only the root syllables of these parts of speech remain the same in all combinations.[63](63/ "tree and pragmatics") Kaffir words are in most instances combined together to form sentences in such a way that they cannot be separated from each other as English words are.[64](64/ "tree and pragmatics") What appears in writing to be only one word, is often really three or four, but as in another combination these would change their positions, and as very frequently a single letter represents a word, it would create much greater confusion to separate them than to write them as one.[65](65/ "tree and pragmatics") There is no difficulty whatever in expressing any ideas in the Kaffir language.[66](66/ "tree and pragmatics") The present infinitive of any verb can be transformed into an abstract noun.[67](67/ "tree and pragmatics") The numerals are as complete as is necessary for any calculation.[68](68/ "tree and pragmatics") Adjectives proper are not numerous, but their place is supplied by abstract nouns; as if we should say, a thing with goodness, instead of, a good thing.[69](69/ "tree and pragmatics") The adjective follows the noun, as abantwana bane, children four, izinto zine, things four.[70](70/ "tree and pragmatics") **1** [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/2/page/2/) [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/2/page/3/) - ← previous: [Opening](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/1/) - next →: [page 2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/2/page/2/) - ↑ back to [Kaffir folk-lore](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg71335/)